Are SSE having a laugh..??!!

aimzee84

Hi all!

We got our quarterly bill yesterday from SSE. We only get our electric through them and British Gas provide our gas.

Our last bill in December was £279.82, which isn't bad for three months.

This bill is £423!! We use an electric heater (2000kw max, but usually on 750) for around 6 hours a day. We have two laptops which are charged throughout the day, and we have the TV on sometimes. Obviously lights in the evening and an electric cooker/kettle. There are only two of us living here (we both work from home). We are at a loss to explain the increased usage! In October/November/December 2013 we had two electric fires going (one was a fan heater) constantly, so by getting rid of that and buying a new heater we assumed costs would go down!

It says on the bill that our usage compared to this time last year has increased by 963%..

Is it worth calling and asking them to come and check the meter? It was read the day before the bill was issued.

We just cannot believe the huge hike in cost!

Any advice would be great :-)

Nada666

But was it read before the previous statement was issued?

That is, have you used £423 over three months or have you used £700 over six months?

You have to stop relying on your bills and start reading your meter yourself daily and weekly. Once you get an idea of what you are actually using you can determine whether there is an anomaly or not.

(Replacing one electric heater with a different electric heater is not going to alter your usage? Don't quite understand what you wrote about that. £93 to £140 per month - more likely an interim estimated bill than a meter fault.)

But if you also have gas do you not have gas heating?

(Replacing a fan heater with a non-fan heater just means you don't hear your money disappearing and are not continually reminded of the fact - doesn't change the rate of disappearance - you are more likely to end up spending more money, not less with a stealthy oil heater!)

yangptangkipperbang

Nada666 wrote: »

You have to stop relying on your bills and start reading your meter yourself daily and weekly. Once you get an idea of what you are actually using you can determine whether there is an anomaly or not.

.....oh come on - don't be so sensible !!

aimzee84

We send our own meter readings in generally, but on 27th March someone came and read the meter, so we didn't send one.

We don't use our gas central heating as we are doing the property up, there are floorboards up in all the rooms, creating ample opportunity for heat to escape, the radiators are older than us and cannot be turned up/down, or off in some case! So heating just the one room we inhabit seems to make sense.

I've always used electric heaters, and previous to moving in here had a pre-pay meter at a rented property, and even in the coldest months only paid £15 a week on electricity.

We used to pay by direct debit but were being done over well and truly paying £178 per month for electric, so switched to quarterly billing. When we receive an estimated bill we contact SSE with a reading and pay nothing until we've received the amended bill, so we always just pay for what we have used.

We live incredibly frugally and exactly the same as we did last year (with the exception of having a new microwave-which we haven't used in a month!), and fail to see how our usage can be so different.

Nada666

So about double the usage (£117 vs £65). Did previous place have an electric cooker? Doesn't sound impossible - no carpeting or flooring, different property, probably bigger spaces to heat. Are there not any electrical tools and stuff that you are now using?

aimzee84

We are only heating the living area for that fact-bigger rooms and no carpets etc.. There's nothing else that's changed really. My previous place was a first floor flat, single glazed, and about 20metres from the English channel.

Seems we'll just have to keep an eye on things, it just seems rediculous to be charged so much more this bill when we've been using less..!

drobe

it just seems rediculous to be charged so much more this bill when we've been using less..!

But how many kWh did you use?

macman

But nowhere in your posts do you produce any evidence that you did use less. Post the comparative kWh usage for each billing period. That's what matters, not what you were charged (you are also ignoring the price increases of the last 12 months).
If you only want to heat a few rooms, then use the CH and turn off the rads in the areas not required. You are aware that heating by standard rate electricity is about 300% more expensive than gas? How are you heating your hot water? Forget your laptop or microwave, it's heating and hot water that account for maybe 80% of your usage.
Have you verified that the agent reading of 27/3 was correct?